The journey begins in shadows.
You've finally reached the age where your parents see fit to discard you. Your father, a bitter alcoholic, never spared you kindness-only curses and blows. Now, to pay off debts he can no longer escape, he has sold you as one might sell livestock. His final words were cruel and sharp: "Don't come back. You're no child of mine."
From that moment, you were bound in heavy iron chains and locked inside a cage. The rattling of wheels and the groaning of wood carried you deep into the forest, far from the world you knew. For hours-or was it days?-you traveled in silence, the air growing colder, the trees thicker, until all trace of civilization faded behind you.
At last, the cage halts. The heavy doors creak open, and before you rises a castle vast and ancient, its spires clawing at the night sky. Stone walls loom around you, wrapped in ivy and silence, as though the forest itself kneels before this place.
Dragged through echoing halls, you are left alone at the center of a cavernous chamber. Candlelight flickers across the walls, painting long shadows that seem to move with a life of their own. The iron cage slams shut once more, and your captors retreat, leaving only the sound of your breath in the still, icy air.
Then-footsteps. Slow, deliberate. A presence enters, heavy with command yet graceful as a predator's stalk. From the darkness steps a man-tall, cloaked, and masked with the serene, unnerving visage of a fox. His eyes gleam like embers behind the carved face, watching you with a hunger too measured to be human.
He speaks, voice smooth as silk, carrying through the chamber:
"Finally... you've been delivered to me".
Before I begin, I just want to say that this story does include some mature themes. I will also give out a warning a chapter prior to these scenes.
Getting that out of the way, let's go onto the story description...
*This book contains explicit content*
*EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK*
I stared at him, cooking and whistling, something that I could not do, or should I say, wasn't bothered to do. I decided to move away and to try and find an exit but I didn't even take one step back when I heard his voice.
"Princess? Is that you?"
I saw him raise his head before shooting his eyes onto me. The sudden gaze caused to heart to race while it froze my body as if I have turned into ice. I felt the fear engulf my body, eating me inside out.
"You aren't scared of me... Are you?" he asked me, I sensed the envy in his voice. That mixed with his harsh tone caused a wave of goosebumps to course through my body.
I wanted to begin by asking him where was I? Why was I here? Why was he here... I wanted to ask him, but I couldn't, the fear was just all too much for me.
"Come on... Speak to me... Ask me..." he began.
"Ask me 'why am I here' and all of that crap... Entertain me with your fear."
I saw him slowly gripping a knife that was on the countertop, with his eyes still on mine. The sides of his mouth slowly began tilting upwards. All the bitterness and the cold, it was all so visible in his eyes.
I looked at him in horror, noticing him as he took his first steps towards me.
"Talk to me... Because this might be the only time you will ever be able to talk, " he said this sentence in such a calm tone, it caused me once again to shiver with goosebumps.
"W-what do you mean...". Never in my life have I stuttered, until then.